The Muhlenberg women’s soccer team combined something old, something new and something borrowed to make sure its season was anything but blue. The Mules went on a surge late in the year to finish with a 13-6 record –

Dello Russo notched two goals and two assists as a senior, ending her career with 21 points.

a nine-win improvement from 2005 – and return to the Centennial Conference playoffs.

The “old” came from a group of eight seniors who won the CC championship as freshmen in 2002 and helped return the program to prominence after a couple of down years in the middle.

Goalie Kayla Boisvert had her best season as a senior, leading the CC with a 0.69 goals-against average and .881 save percentage in league games. Elana Rabinowitz tied a career high with seven points, and co-captains Andrea Dello Russo and Kristen Cioeta were starters the whole season. Becky Giuditta, Shauna Henley, Emily Nealis and Maria Tranguch rounded out the unusually large senior contingent.

The “new” came from an outstanding freshman class that accounted for half of Muhlenberg’s 32 goals. The group included two sets of twins: Ashley and Christina O’Grady and Kasey and Kimberly Hacker. Both O’Grady sisters earned second-team All-CC honors, with Christina scoring 16 points and Ashley excelling as a back, while the Hackers combined for nine goals and three assists. Jayne Condon, Samantha Hoffman and Christine Schaefer also played key roles as rookies.

The “borrowed” element was Mallory DiMaio, who after time at Division I

Boisvert, who made a career-high 15 saves in the Dickinson game, finished her career third on the Mules’ all-time list with a 1.10 goals-against average. She was named to the All-CC second team.

St. John’s and Division II North Florida returned home to Allentown for her final year of college. In her lone season with the Mules, she scored a team-leading nine goals and earned second-team all-region honors.

It took a while for the talents to click. Muhlenberg began its season with a dramatic 3-2 win against Gwynedd-Mercy, coming back from a 2-0 deficit with three goals in the final 14:25, but was only 4-5 overall and 1-3 in the CC at the end of September.

Then the calendar turned the page, and the Mules turned the corner. They went 9-0 in October, outscoring their opponents 20-4 to clinch the fourth seed in the CC playoffs. Included in the winning streak were road wins against eventual ECAC champion Gettysburg and defending CC regular-season champ Dickinson.

In the first round of the CC playoffs, Muhlenberg knocked off Ursinus for the second time in three days, 1-0. It was a reversal of 2004, when the Bears defeated the Mules in both the regular-season finale and the first round of the playoffs. Muhlenberg lost in the CC semifinals, 3-1 to eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins.